Man gets Sued for Starting a Wildfire

So apparently a guy in 2013 started a wildfire and the Federal Government chose to sue him for 25 million dollars. The basic story behind this goes that a junction box that wasn't managed well sparked and set fire to the San Jacinto Mountains which is above Palm Springs. Through an investigation that took pace they had figured out that some wires inside the box part of the machine was warped and left open. Because of this something inside a box started to spew out sparks, and because it was open hot metal fell onto the ground below the box. Now, this is a problem because there is a law stating property owners must make sure that the property they own is maintained. Because of this fire hundreds of lives were in danger, but I do not know if anyone died during the incident. The lawsuit that has taken place happened a day before the anniversary of when the fire happened ( that's kind of fucked up honestly). It was filed after the attorney for Al-Shawraf and the caretakers of the property failed to pay the costs of the damage and the labor of the firefighting. James R. Lance, attorney for Al-Shawaf and the caretakers are denying that they started the fire. They are saying they aren't responsible for starting the fire and or the damages caused by the fire. The fire was so big that it burned for more than two weeks. About 3,000 firefighters and 250 fire engines were needed to help put it out, and they also used about 30 aircraft.The National forest service spent millions of dollars on firefighters and other firefighting equipment, and about 300,000 on rehabilitation of the area in which the fire happened.